Is The Fear Of Intelligent Machines Justified?

Professional Go player Lee Sedol, of South Korea, was defeated in the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, in Seoul on March 15. Lee Jin-man/AP hide caption toggle caption Lee Jin-man/AP It’s in the news everywhere, with near-apocalyptic hubris: Google’s DeepMind machine beat the world champion of the game Go with a score of 4-1. Or, according to Britain’s Independent newspaper: “Google’s Go-playing computer has definitely beaten the best human in the world, finishing a pioneering match at 4-1.” The “best human in the world,” South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol, is actually ranked No. 5 in the world. Clearly a stellar Go player — but not the world’s best. Mind you, there are several kinds of rankings for Go and they don’t always agree.…